By default, Outlook will notify you whenever you receive an email. This can be very distracting when you’re in the middle of doing something else and a pop-up appears in the middle of your screen. Here’s how to turn off that notification in Outlook 2007:

Open Outlook

Choose Mail

Choose Tools

Choose Options

Choose Preferences (it should already default to this tab)

Choose Email Options

Choose Advanced Email Options

Under “When new items arrive in my Inbox,” you can choose from a number of different options.

They are:

Play a sound

Briefly change the mouse cursor

Show an envelope icon in the notification area

Display a New Mail Desktop Alert (default Inbox only)—this is the option you want to uncheck

If you still want to know when you receive a message, but you don’t want the notice plastered in the middle of your screen, choose “Show an envelope icon in the notification area.” By choosing this, you’ll get a much smaller notification in the lower right-hand corner of your screen, which will stay there for a short while and then disappear. If you don’t want any pop-up at all, simply uncheck that box, too.

Now you can direct your complete attention to whatever you’re doing without an interruption from Outlook!

You can see this tip and others, on topics ranging from Outlook and Word help to App reviews and online tools, all here.

Longtime readers of the Colorado Bar Association’s C-Brief, its weekly eNewsletter, know each week there is a tip from Law Practice Management Director Reba Nance. Those tips are moving beyond the newsletter and now have a permanent home within the Practice Management section of CBA’s website. We’ll share some of the best tips each week here as Solo Tip Tuesday.